


Home

by scarletwithans



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gilbert Blythe Needs a Hug, Married Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Renew Anne with an E, Romance, Shirbert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26161663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarletwithans/pseuds/scarletwithans
Summary: They could stay in each other’s arms like this for eternity, feeling a sense of safety and comfort that was reserved only for the moments when they could hold each other like this. Because sometimes home is not a place, but another person.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80





	Home

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t save her. 

Gilbert could do nothing but watch as the man cradled his baby in his arms. He cried in agony, his screams becoming deafening as he desperately held onto his wife’s lifeless body in that drafty delivery room. How could life be so cruel to him? To take the love of his life from him just as a physical manifestation of their love came into existence. It wasn’t fair.

Gilbert felt helpless, fighting back tears of his own as he wondered whether his own father had cried like this when he had been born. 

He couldn’t cry. He had to be strong for their sake, not falling apart. Not here, not now. 

His heart felt heavy that dark November evening. The snow falling ever so slowly as he walked home, the grim sky mirroring perfectly the hopelessness he felt that day. It never got any easier. Medicine couldn’t save his mother, his father, nor could it save Mary. 

He couldn’t save them. 

Walking into their home, he first heard her angelic voice. Anne was in the kitchen, singing softly, preoccupied with toasting the paprika for the stew as Mary had shown her. He almost considered going back, not wanting to taint her pure, gentle nature with the heavy burden of his emotions. He wanted nothing more in life than to give her happiness – unbelievable, overwhelming joy, for no one deserved it more than she did. 

She turned to him as she noticed his presence in the kitchen and smiled brightly, radiating love and warmth even just in the way that she looked at him. “Hello my love! Long day at work?” 

Gilbert nodded, still too numb to speak. 

She could tell that something was amiss. He didn’t run into the kitchen as he usually did, her feigned annoyance apparent as he wrapped his arms around her and peppered her cheeks with kisses. All thought of her stew was gone as she could think only of her husband. What was plaguing his mind? She took his hands in hers and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Shall I run you a bath?” she asked, the concern clear on her face. 

His throat felt dry. He was struggling to find the words to say to his wife whose love for him had always been evident in everything that she said or did for him. He needed her, her comforting presence that seemed to take away every semblance of pain he had ever felt, her love that permeated through his very being. He collapsed into her arms then, and she knew in that moment, that he needed her more than he could ever explain. 

“I couldn’t save her,” he said, almost in a whisper. “I couldn’t do it.”

“I am so sorry, my love,” she said soothingly, understanding just how deeply these losses affected him, the yearning to take away his pain becoming stronger than ever before. “Everything will be alright. It will all be alright. You did your best, Gilbert. You did all you could do. All anyone could ever ask for is a doctor who cares as much as you do. A doctor who can take away even a fraction of someone’s suffering. You did that, Gilbert.” She began running her fingers through his hair as his head came to rest on her shoulder, her need to comfort him almost maternal. Her heart ached for him as she imagined how lost he must have felt as a little boy growing up without the protective and unconditional love of a mother. She wanted to give him all the love in the world - all the love that he had missed out on, shield him from all the pain and adversity that life had given him. “You are a wonderful doctor, Gilbert. A wonderful person. Nothing will ever change that.” 

“Please don’t leave me,” he managed as his tears began to fall uncontrollably then, not being able to stop as he felt most vulnerable in the arms of the woman that he loved so dearly. “I’m not going anywhere my love,” she reassured, rubbing his back tenderly. “I’m right here.” 

They could stay in each other’s arms like this for eternity, feeling a sense of safety and comfort that was reserved only for the moments when they could hold each other like this. Because sometimes home is not a place, but another person. And Gilbert had never felt more at home than he did in that moment in Anne’s arms as she told him that everything would be alright, that she loved him more than she could ever put into words despite her vast vocabulary.

“I can’t lose you, Anne,” he said, holding her even tighter. Anne could feel her own tears threatening to escape. She understood the source of his suffering, how broken he felt – the men in his life having to bear the excruciating pain of losing the women they loved too early in life, desperately hoping that he would not meet with the same fate. 

Anne took his face into her hands, looking into his eyes – those beautiful eyes with which he had always given her longing looks, expressing his feelings in a way that his words couldn’t. She wiped away his tears and placed fervent kisses there, for she ached to pour love into every crevice of his heart that had become so accustomed to the pain of losing the people that he loved. “Gilbert Blythe, you are the strongest man I know,” she proclaimed, feeling immense respect for her husband. "I love you so much," she said, tears spilling freely now. It was his turn to wipe away her tears as he whispered his own "I love you, Anne-girl," against her hair. 

She took his hand, kissing it, then placing it on her slightly protruding belly. “You know Gilbert, it has always amazed me that I can create a whole person – the perfect combination of myself and the man that I love.” She looked up at him with so much love and passion as she spoke. “Soon, we’ll have a little Blythe running around the house, going on adventures and inevitably getting into all kinds of trouble. And with our unconditional love and support guiding them along the glorious and unpredictable path that we call life, they will become wonderful human beings - much like their father,” she said, her animated voice full of hope for their unborn child. “And we'll be there for all of it. You will not lose me, Gilbert. Do you hear me?” 

He nodded, getting lost in her enchanting blue eyes which shone with admiration for the man she adored wholeheartedly. “You will be the most amazing father, Gilbert,” she said with conviction. “Although I suspect that I shall be the better parent.” 

He laughed at that, her competitive nature always amusing to him. Anne felt overwhelming relief hearing him laugh. “I have no doubt that you will be the better parent, Anne. No one has more love to give than you do.” 

She gave him a warm smile. “How about I run you that bath now?”

“Only if you join me,” he said with his signature smirk. 

So as Gilbert carried his wife up the stairs, her childish giggles putting his heart at ease, he knew for certain that Anne was his home. It didn’t matter where he was, how far he had gone, because wherever she was - his Anne with an E, that was where home was.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I always felt that as a doctor, Gilbert would endure a painful loss of a patient that would be reminiscent of the people that he lost in his life, and Anne would be there for him in those moments. There are some direct references from the show as well! This is my first time writing for Anne with an E, and I do hope to continue! Please be kind!


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